Podcast transcript: Best Value & Community Planning Audit of East Lothian Council 

Published 16 October 2007

We’re here today talking with Isabelle Low, the Deputy Chair of the Accounts Commission, about the Best Value report on East Lothian Council. Isabelle, how is this council performing?

What this report shows is that East Lothian Council has made limited progress in establishing Best Value for the people who live there. What it shows is that both elected members and senior officials have not provided clear leadership or strategic focus and it’s worrying that the council doesn’t have a consistent corporate culture of improvement. It’s quite clear that the staff are committed and there are indeed examples of good work within services but overall the picture is very mixed. 

Could you explain what you mean by limited progress in establishing Best Value?

Best Value is about councils being able to prove that they are continuously improving the services they provide to local people. 

They need to be effective, they need to be efficient. Now, although East Lothian has been putting arrangements in place to achieve Best Value, these arrangements still need to be developed further before they can become fully effective and be able to deliver the real improvements that local people want to see. 

The report recognises the favourable context within which East Lothian Council operates. But what concerns the Commission is that this council within these circumstances has made such limited progress. The Commission is also concerned about how well the council can address the major issues it faces and has made a number of detailed recommendations to the council.

So which services are performing well, and which not so well?

As I say, it’s a very mixed picture. Overall the rate of improvement is just below the Scottish average. The council does provide a number of very good quality services and the report highlights examples. In particular it highlights education, planning, community care and criminal justice.

But alongside that there are important areas where the picture is much less good and where there needs to be serious improvement, for example in relation to homelessness, building standards and some aspects of adult social care, such as privacy for older people in residential homes.

So what does the council need to do to address the issues that you raise in this report?

The council faces a challenging improvement agenda. The scale of the improvements needed is considerable and the council in recent years has lacked a strategic focus on priorities.

So the key improvements we’re looking for include establishing a stable management structure, providing effective leadership development for both elected members and officials, developing a more effective strategic planning framework, developing much more robust scrutiny arrangements, improving resource management  - especially in respect of financial planning and asset management, and above all developing an integrated framework for continuous improvement.

Do you feel that the council’s equipped to make the changes that you want it to make?
The Accounts Commission is concerned about the capacity of the council to address all these major issues that it faces. And so we’ve urged the council to consider what appropriate avenues are available for outside help including learning from best practice from elsewhere in local government.

The council has indicated that it is determined to adopt a fresh approach that will address many of the difficulties identified. And the Commission welcomes this.

Finally, what’s the next stage in this process?

As with all Best Value audits the Commission members will visit the council for a discussion about the audit and the way forward and Audit Scotland will be monitoring the action that the council takes against the plan through the local auditor who works with the council on an ongoing basis.

OK, Isabelle, thanks for your time.